Two sci-fi icons host new shows - and one's about nerd culture

Viewers will find John Barrowman, Captain Jack from "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood," on a singing show these days, while Wil Wheaton, aka "Star Trek"'s Wesley Crusher, has a self-titled Syfy show about nerd culture.

By RICK BENTLEY

capecodtimes.com

By RICK BENTLEY

Posted Jun. 1, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By RICK BENTLEY
Posted Jun. 1, 2014 at 2:00 AM

ON THE TUBE

What: "Sing Your Face Off"

When: 9 p.m. Saturdays on ABC

What: "The Wil Wheaton Project"

When: 10 p.m. Tuesdays on Syfy

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ON THE TUBE

What: "Sing Your Face Off"

When: 9 p.m. Saturdays on ABC

What: "The Wil Wheaton Project"

When: 10 p.m. Tuesdays on Syfy

» Social News

John Barrowman, the host of the new ABC competition series "Sing Your Face Off," has ridden the notoriety from his "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" character Captain Jack Harkness to a diverse career.

"Some people only know me as Captain Jack from 'Doctor Who' and I have absolutely no problem with that," says a very enthusiastic Barrowman. "Getting the role of Captain Jack a dozen years ago was a dream come true. As an actor, a role like Captain Jack can change your life. Jack has opened up so many other doors for me."

Along with a recurring role on the CW's series "Arrow," the latest open door is the ABC music competition show that launched Saturday. Barrowman hosts a group of celebrities who are transformed into famous singers: Jon Lovitz as Elton John and Luciano Pavarotti; Sebastian Bach as Adam Levine and Lady Gaga; Lisa Rinna as Dolly Parton and Britney Spears. From the hours in the makeup chair to the days spent with choreographers and vocal coaches, each show will feature the complete transformation.

Debbie Gibson and Darrell Hammond are the primary judges, who will be joined by guest judges David Alan Grier, RuPaul, Carnie Wilson, Richard Simmons, Tom Arnold and Carmen Electra.

Barrowman handles the hosting duties, but he could've just as easily been a contestant. The Scottish-American actor, singer, dancer, presenter and writer launched his professional career playing Billy Crocker in Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" at London's West End. Through his 16 years on the stage, Barrowman's appeared in productions, in London and on Broadway, of "Miss Saigon," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Sunset Boulevard" and "La Cage aux Folles."

His self-titled album reached No. 11 on the British charts and he has another album that was just released.

"I have done similar competition shows with dancing and ice skating. And they talked about me doing the hosting as some music icon. But, it is a difficult thing to host and be part of the program. I am better known for presenting, someone who can control the panel, control the contestants," Barrowman says.

He was a contestant on the celebrity ice skating show "Dancing on Ice" and a judge on programs like Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical talent shows "How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?," "Any Dream Will Do" and "I'd Do Anything."

Barrowman was one of the original hosts of "Live & Kicking," a BBC children's Saturday morning variety show and appeared on the children's TV game show, "The Movie Game."

He calls hosting a "complete juggling job" because there's no way to predict what's going to happen.

"When I do these hosting jobs, it's like jumping jump off a cliff. If the parachute comes out, that's great. But, if something goes wrong, you have to figure out how to land. When something out of left field happens, you have to be able to talk about it, bring everything back to the show," Barrowman says. "I don't want to sound like I have a big head but very few people can host a show well. I was very lucky that I started working with the BBC early in my career and got a lot of media training."

When Barrowman has been a judge, he has spoken honestly when giving critiques. He will be looking for the same kind of honesty from "Sing Your Face Off" judges when he quizzes them after each performance.

Although he's happy to be the host of "Sing Your Face Off," it's obvious Barrowman has at least thought about which performers he would have liked to impersonate had he been a contestant.

"I do covers of artist like Michael Buble and Barry Manilow on my albums," Barrowman says. "I would have gone with something completely off the rails like Bon Jovi. And I have never sung opera."

By ANDREA PETERSON

THE WASHINGTON POST

Wil Wheaton has been entertaining geeks since his teenage years as Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” More recently, he’s appeared as a fictional version of himself on “The Big Bang Theory” and on his board game Web show “TableTop.”

His latest endeavor is “The Wil Wheaton Project” – a weekly program highlighting nerd culture that premiered on SyFy last week. Here are excerpts from a recent interview:

Q: The show is sort of a weekly television love letter to nerd culture – is that how you think about it?

A: I think that’s a fair assessment. It’s also just sort of taking all of the things that I love and all of the things that I do in relation to the things that I love and putting it into a television format that people understand and know what to expect from. Somebody said to me it’s sort of like everything I do on the Internet converted to television, which I think is pretty accurate.

I have said that being a nerd is not about being what you love, it’s about the way that you love it. And the way that we love the subtexts and the programs that we are going to be covering ... is exactly what you’ll be seeing come out of me on the show. We highlight the things we think are awesome, and then we tease and make fun of the absurdities, as well.

Q: Are we going to see you tackle issues (like his complaints about National Security Agency information-collecting) as well?

A: I don’t think so. The purpose of the show is to entertain and to make what is popularly known as nerd culture accessible to anyone that cares to pay attention to it. I’m hoping to have a half an hour every week where people who like the same things as I like will join me to look back at the really great stuff that happened in comic books and sci-fi fantasy and a lot of the things that we watch on television – maybe try to highlight some of the lesser-known things that exist on the fringes of nerd culture that I think are really awesome and maybe aren’t getting through on television.

But the prime directive from the network and the production company and from me to the writers is that we need to be funny. We need to be entertaining. And every now and then we can slip in something that maybe is a bit more serious and maybe makes a little bit of a point, but we need to do it in a way that is funny and entertaining because that’s the purpose of the show.

Q: So while you have a very broad definition of what being a nerd is, it really does seem that in your career you’ve become a bit of an icon or ambassador for more traditional nerd topics...

A: I know that I’m a little bit of a spokesman for those things, and I know that I have a little bit of a high profile in that world. And because I’m aware of that, I’m grateful for it. And it’s a privilege to have that voice, and it is important to me to respect it, not take it for granted. And every now and then when people want to hear me talk, it’s important that I have something to say. ... (For the show) the network wants me to talk to everybody and let people know about it so that enough people know about it that it’s able to speak for itself. ...

(Discusses the success of “TableTop”) My ulterior motive for “TableTop” was to make more gamers – and by all accounts that mission has been a very big success. I’m hoping to do something similar with “The Wil Wheaton Project.”

I’m hoping that people who already love sci-fi fantasy and the supernatural shows will come on board and enjoy what we’re talking about. I’m also hopeful that they will be able to share this speculative fiction entertainment with their partners who maybe aren’t already into it in the same way that people who are gamers shared “TableTop” with their friends and families and partners who are not gamers.

Q: (How do) you think the experience of being a child actor (on “Star Trek”) in that prominent of a role would be different with the sort of connectivity that many celebrities have with their fans now online – tweeting every little detail...

A: I actually did some like “Star Trek” Q&A stuff when I was 14, 15, 16 years old back then, but nothing even close to what it’s like now. And I was aware even then that online there was this group of people who didn’t like who I played on the show, so they decided that they hated me.

People weren’t making the distinction between the actor and the character, and so it became very difficult for me to make the distinction between me and the character – and it was very hurtful. It was really difficult to deal with. I felt like I never got an opportunity to speak for myself. Back then the only way to communicate with anyone was to sit down and do an interview, and for the most part no one was interested in anything I had to say. ...

But in 2000 in my late 20s I became aware of the existence of online journals and blogging software and I saw that I had an opportunity to finally speak for myself and talk about the things that were important to me – to share some of myself. And that’s when I started my blog. ... It let me lay out who I was and what I was about and say to the world: “This is me, and if you’re going to take this thing that I have for a character I played 20 years ago and put it on to me – that’s not my problem, that’s yours.”

And because I was there at the very beginning blogging, when these social media things started picking up, I felt very comfortable there because I was already a person who lived very openly, loudly online. And Twitter, Tumblr and all of the different social networks were just sort of a different way to express and communicate what I’d already been doing.

Q: I know you’ve been very open about your struggle with depression and anxiety. ... How do you handle that with being so public?

A: I remember when I was younger and was really struggling with depression and I didn’t know it. I didn’t know that I had it; I just knew that I felt bad. It’s real common for someone who doesn’t have depression to think, “Well, you should just cheer up.” And speaking as a person who has varying degrees of good and bad days, the answer to that is that if I could, if I could just feel better, I would. The reality is that when you suffer from depression you just can’t, and you need help – there’s medical help, and talking therapy help, and there’s these things that kind of all go together. ... I’ve talked with some friends of mine who are extremely successful and they have depression and anxiety, and they talked about it in public. Because they talked about it, it made me realize that I wasn’t alone and that I didn’t have to suffer and that if they could have it and be treated and be super-successful and happy, then so could I. ... It’s part of me. And some days are good. I know that the publicists at the network would rather that I didn’t talk about it, and I know that they would rather me put up an image of being successful and happy and advertiser-friendly. But the reality is that I’m a flawed human being, and I struggle every day with one thing or another, and some days are grea,t and some days are less great. That’s just the way that it is.

By being open and honest, I keep myself open and honest and I stay connected to the real world, and I don’t become one of those entitled douche-bag celebrity people. I don’t ever want to be one of those people. By talking about all of this stuff and staying honest and staying real ..., it prevents that from happening, and it makes me feel like I’m sort of doing something good that’s more important and bigger than me – that’s more important and bigger than just being an entertainer.